Sunday, March 01, 2009

2009 Spectrum of Stars Autographs - Bait and Switch?

I think I'm one of the few people who actually get a kick out of seeing B-list celebrity autographs in sports products. Most I don't give a second glance to but when there's 80s TV and movie stars involved, I'm often all over it. So when Upper Deck released their preliminary checklist for 2009 UD Spectrum Baseball, I went directly to the autograph list as there's no other reason for me to be interested in the product. The original checklist included a whopping 81 names, most of which had signed in various non-sport products and are frequent visitors and conventions and the like. If last year had a hair rock feel, then 2009 was all about the science fiction.

I've been checking out the auctions now that the set is live and of the 81 original names announced, I've seen all of six of them. Six out of 81. If it were a test, Upper Deck scored 7%. Sure there's other names that weren't on the original checklist like Cheech and Chong and Leapin' Lanny Poffo (yes, even wrestling jobbers are getting in on the action now), and there's probably some more cards that I haven't seen but this is a significantly different checklist from the one dealers were to pre-ordered from.

These autographs are the only thing that makes Spectrum different from the rest of the baseball pack. While others include celebrity autographs as well, it's not on the same scale. So then if this is one of the set's big selling points, why bother giving specifics if they're going to totally change. Some of the ommissions are understandable. Ricardo Montalbon recently passed away. That might make it tough for him to fulfill his commitments. I figure it would take a commitment from the celebrity's part to get Upper Deck to include them on sales material. So then what's the problem? Seven percent success rate? My guess is people could do better than that doing through-the-mail requests.

Cheech and Chong may be cool additions. But 7%? I guess I'm just ticked about not having seen the Corey Haim that was originally announced. I was really hoping to pair it with my 2007 UD Spectrum Corey Feldman autograph and make a License to Drive set.

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About Me

It all began with a pack of E.T. cards when I was a little ankle biter. From there I started collected any and all cards I could get my hands on. In recent years I've focused my collecting to sets, John Jaha, Montreal Expos and autographs - as well as anything that catches my attention. I believe in collecting for the fun of it and hope to show that here. I currently write for Non-Sport Update and have written for Beckett Baseball Card Plus and Canadian Sports Collector.

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